1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of designing and manufacturing a cam device used by being mounted on a press die for processing works such as automobile panels, the method being configured to determine the shapes of the cam device according to processing abilities or the like required by customers (users such as automobile manufacturers which are in need of the cam device), and also to a three-dimensional design-support computer program that efficiently supports the design of the cam device.
2. Prior Art
In the prior art, a cam device to be used for a press die (or referred to as “cam unit”) is selected from those presented on catalogues or the like as standard products on the basis of requirements of customers in many cases. However, in the case of the cam devices as the standard products as described above, various factors such as size, an amount of motion, a processing power, a returning power, and a moment power of the cam device often do not match the customers' requests due to the restrictions of the cam device mounting spaces in the press dies. In such a case, the customers design their own cam devices by themselves and place orders with cam device manufactures for the cam device as a custom-made cam. However, for example, in the case of three-dimensional design-support software on the basis of a computer program used in design of cam device (CAD: Computer Aided Design or Computer Assisted Drafting, Computer Assisted Drawing), there is no suitable design-support program which contributes to easy designing of the desired cam devices and is capable of designing the cam without leaking the manufacture's design know-how in the relationship between the customers and the manufacturers as matters now stand. On the other hand, a computer program disclosed in JP-A-2008-242609 is known as general three-dimensional design-support software for designing devices and equipment, although it does not relate to the cam device.
However, in the case where the cam devices are designed by customers such as die manufacturers in the prior art, for example, as there are a few designers having a general knowledge about the cam device, the cam devices designed by designers of the customers are often required to be corrected in design by the cam device manufactures on the order-receiving side when finally deciding the processing power, the stroke, etc. Therefore, repeated exchanges between the customers and the manufactures are necessary to confirm and correct the designed dimensions including details of the cam devices, thereby requiring long time and many steps. If the cam device manufacturers provide the customers with the design reference or the design-support software of the cam device, most of the problems are solved for sure. However, the cam device manufacturers side has concern about the leak of the design know-how, so that the software that the manufactures use cannot be handed to the customer as-is.